Cafe La Trova – Calle Ocho's cantinero cathedral

On Calle Ocho, the spine of Miami's Little Havana, Cafe La Trova occupies a two-room address at 971 SW 8th Street that opened to the public on 28 January 2019, the result of a long-held plan between Maestro Cantinero Julio Cabrera and his friend, James Beard Award-winning chef Michelle Bernstein. Cabrera, trained as a formal cantinero in Cuba in the late 1980s before tending bars in Italy, Mexico and across the United States, built the room as the bar he had promised his father he would one day open. Bernstein brings a contemporary hand to Cuban cooking, from croquetas to ropa vieja, while live Trova musicians play nightly from a stage framed by a hanging clothesline. The restaurant is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, and its bar program has become one of the most decorated in the Americas, ranked #42 on North America's 50 Best Bars for 2024, 2025 and 2026.

01The room and the setting

Cafe La Trova is built as two distinct rooms, each drawing on Havana and Miami in equal measure. The front room is designed as a re-creation of a Cuban street scene, complete with a clothesline strung over a stage where musicians serenade diners through the evening, a detail that marked the restaurant out from its earliest reviews on opening weekend in January 2019.

The effect is theatrical rather than nostalgic pastiche: cantineros toss shakers and flambé garnishes at the bar while a live son cubano band plays, and the room fills with the particular noise of a Little Havana night out rather than a hushed dining room.

02The chef and the cantinero

Julio Cabrera is the face of cantinero culture in the United States, a tradition he trained in formally in Cuba in the late 1980s before careers behind the bar in Italy, Mexico and, eventually, Miami. His bar team at La Trova adheres to the theatrical, technique-driven cantinero style first codified by Constantino Ribalaigua at Havana's El Floridita, and bartenders are trained to make more than two hundred drinks as part of that apprenticeship. Cabrera's contribution to the craft was recognised with the Roku Industry Icon Award at the 2023 North America's 50 Best Bars ceremony.

Insider tip

Happy hour 4–7pm daily; live music nightly; valet parking advised.

Chef Michelle Bernstein, a Miami native of Jewish and Latin descent and a James Beard Award winner, is Cabrera's long-time friend and creative partner; the pair first worked together in the early 2000s when Cabrera ran the bar at her restaurant Michy's. At La Trova she applies a modern hand to traditional Cuban dishes, working alongside partners Orestes Pajón and David Martinez.

03The cooking

The kitchen's starting point is the classic Cuban repertoire: croquetas in jamón serrano, creamy mushroom or chorizo versions, and empanadas filled with hand-cut steak or the restaurant's own Cuban sandwich mix of La Trova lechón, ham, Swiss cheese, yellow mustard and pickles.

Main courses lean on slow cookery and char: skirt steak ropa vieja served with arroz y frijoles negros, tostones and avocado cream; arroz con pollo made with bomba rice, saffron, beer and free-range chicken; and lechón, a braised mojo-marinated pork shoulder finished with steamed yuca, crispy pork skin and a tangerine mojo. A pasta course, rabo encendido, takes a slowly braised oxtail stew and tosses it through trofie with mascarpone and pecorino.

04Wine and drinks

Cabrera's menu still opens with the house classics, the Daiquirí Clásico and Mojito Criollo, alongside Cuban-era staples like the Presidente and the Hemingway Special. His own compositions include the Trio Matamoros, a theatrical pairing of Ron Tepuy Monumento, a cafecito cubano and a cigar served on a tray, alongside a short but serious wine list running from Albariño and Chablis to Napa and Ribera del Duero bottles.

That bar program has built an international reputation well beyond Little Havana: the restaurant has placed on both North America's and the World's 50 Best Bars lists in recent years, and won Tales of the Cocktail's Best U.S. Restaurant Bar award in 2023.

05The neighbourhood

Cabrera calls Little Havana "the real Miami," and Calle Ocho outside the door bears that out: murals, the sound of Latin music from open doorways, and the smell of strong coffee and cigars define the street Cafe La Trova sits on. The area can feel touristic by day, but La Trova keeps a local crowd coming back for Wednesday dinners and weekend dancing lessons held on quieter weeknights.

06When to go and booking

Happy hour runs daily from 4 to 7pm at the bar, and arriving before the live music starts, or choosing a Wednesday evening, generally means an easier table for dinner. During Miami Spice, the kitchen runs a $50 set dinner menu Sunday through Thursday, moving through croquetas or empanadas, mains such as skirt steak ropa vieja or lechón, and desserts including flan de la flaca. Parking on Calle Ocho is tight, so valet is the practical choice and worth having cash ready for.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.